


A moment

by sheafrotherdon



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Kissing, Laughter, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-20
Updated: 2020-08-20
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26012899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheafrotherdon/pseuds/sheafrotherdon
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 23
Kudos: 202





	A moment

The gardens at the foot of the mountain are all but deserted at this hour, the sun still burning the chill from the air. Nicky reaches to cup a rose, two fingers snug behind the petals, high enough on the stem to avoid thorns, and leans to inhale its scent. It’s not a heady as it will be by afternoon, but he closes his eyes all the same, smiling as he lets memory wash over him – other gardens at other times.

When the moment breaks, he turns to find Joe watching him, smiling so fondly that Nicky’s heart turns over in his chest, and he feels his cheeks heat. “My father . . .” he begins, meaning to explain, but Joe steps closer, says, “I know.” Nicky feels himself smile—no surprise that he’s told this story before—and Joe’s smile shifts into something achingly familiar, lopsided, and warm.

“Stop that,” Nicky says, laughing, and Joe shakes his head, spreads his hands, asks “what?” but he steps backward as Nicky takes a step toward him. He’s teasing, and yet there is nothing insincere in the tenderness of his gaze, and Nicky quickens his steps. Joe stumbles, and Nicky reaches out to catch him, but the angle is wrong and momentum against them, and they fall to the grass in a tangle of limbs.

“See the trouble you cause?” Nicky asks, cradling Joe’s face and kissing his forehead as he laughs. 

“There is nothing troubling about this situation,” says Joe, grinning as Nicky kisses first one cheek, then the other, then the tip of Joe’s nose. “What exactly would you have me complain about right now?”

Nicky kisses his mouth, a soft, sweet kiss that makes Joe hum happily and slide his hands up beneath Nicky’s shirt to pull him closer. Then he parts his lips, and Nicky sighs as their tongues touch, as the kiss becomes deeper, as Joe twists beneath him and rolls his hips, and Nicky’s forced to pull back to remind him in rapid-fire Italian exactly where they are. Joe grins at him, hair damp from the dew on the grass, and tells him in rapid-fire Italian exactly how much he cares, and Nicky can do nothing but kiss him again, kiss the laugh lines beside his eyes, kiss his neck and his throat and his able, willing mouth. Joe laughs against him, and murmurs, " _prego, prego_ ," and Nicky joins him in his laughter, pulls him closer still.


End file.
